


Pale

by GuyOfShy



Series: Slices [4]
Category: citrus - サブロウタ | citrus - Saburouta
Genre: F/F, Mei and her awkward self, Step-Sibling Incest, Step-Sibling Love, YuzuMei - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 09:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14713754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuyOfShy/pseuds/GuyOfShy
Summary: Student council duties have kept Mei from Yuzu once again, but she finally gets home to discover her sister still working on her homework—perhaps a little too hard. But Mei was glad that her work ethic was rubbing off on her and that she could repay her for her hard work.





	Pale

Mei was usually good about staying awake when she needed to. Many long nights of paperwork and event preparation ensured that she was. She didn’t falter when there was something to be done. But something about the student council work today, or maybe the solitary walk home in the cold, or maybe the elevator currently rocking her to sleep on the way up to the apartment, had her feeling very tired. She allowed her heavy eyelids to close for just a few seconds before a yawn escaped. She held her hand up shyly, despite no one being around; she was used to Yuzu teasing her. Mei felt strange being this tired before even getting home, even though she had stayed out very late.

The elevator rocked at its destination with a beep and the doors opened. Mei walked out and down the hall, and only felt more tired once she entered her home and noticed the lack of light, save for a single lamp left on in the kitchen. Noticing something unfamiliar in its glow on the counter, Mei walked that way to find two circular plastic containers with what looked to be cookies inside. She picked one up to read the label on it: ‘Chocolate chip cookie sandwich’. She wondered if it was Yuzu or their mother who had bought them. It was too late to be eating sweets anyway.

Setting it down next to its twin, she realized that she had mistakenly picked up Yuzu’s since a note sat on top of the other one written in Yuzu’s handwriting, that read: ‘A treat for working so hard!’ A little heart was drawn next to the message that Mei knew the secret meaning of, which meant that Yuzu had probably picked this up for her for working so late. Mei reconsidered eating it in order to fulfill Yuzu’s mission in getting it, but left it alone, figuring that it would make her happier if she saved it to eat together with her tomorrow.

Turning down the hallway to head to their room, Mei noticed that their bedroom light was still on, and felt a warm kind of light switching on inside her as well knowing that Yuzu was still awake for her. She could have really used a dose of Yuzu’s bubbly optimism before turning in for the lonely night. Plus a kiss or two, while they were there.

“I’m home Yu-”

Mei halted both her greeting and her movement. Yuzu sat at her desk hunched over an open textbook, though her head was buried in her arms over it. Her body bobbed slowly with her breathing. Mei couldn’t help a smile, despite her disappointment at finding Yuzu asleep.

_’It seems I wasn’t the only one with a busy night. Or the only one feeling so tired so early today.’_

At least Yuzu was still working hard without her.

Mei slowly set her bag down at her own desk, careful not to make any noise that might wake Yuzu. She walked over next to her to see what she was working on and found the worksheet that she had struggled with yesterday completed, save for a few blanks. They had been planning to study and finish it together tonight, until Mei found out that she had to stay late. She felt bad for not being able to help, though she could hear Yuzu telling her not to worry about circumstances she couldn’t help. “Duty calls!”, she’d say. Mei was proud of her nonetheless. Yuzu was well on her way to improving her grades, not that they were bad before.

Mei sighed. She wanted to tell her that. That she was sorry, and proud. And thankful for the cookie sandwich. Now she had to wait until the morning… but she had to do something about Yuzu before going to bed. Mei didn’t want to leave her hunched over like this. Her back would hurt in the morning, and… she didn’t want to go to bed alone, either. But avoiding waking her was the bigger priority. But if Mei was given a reward for working hard, then Yuzu deserved one too by getting to sleep in her comfy bed. Then Mei thought that even if she did wake Yuzu up, she’d probably be happier to see her back home anyway, much less waking up in her arms.

With that as the only consequence, Mei carefully pulled Yuzu’s chair back to get a good enough angle to lift her out of the chair and over to her side of the bed. Mei pulled the covers over her and swept her bangs out of her eyes. She resisted running her hand through her soft hair, and the thought of kissing her goodnight despite already being asleep, and wondering whether it would be better to kiss her cheek or her lips even though she wasn’t going to kiss her at all.

 _’I’m absurd...'_ It always surprised her how silly being in love made her feel. And always more in love when she thought about that, because Yuzu was the only person that made her feel this way. That meant that this love was real. And she was so happy that Yuzu felt the same way.

Oh, how she wanted to kiss Yuzu right now.

But Mei shook her head and forced herself away before she let the feeling compound any further. She still had more work to do. Sitting down at Yuzu’s desk, she organized her papers and began marking the problems she had finished. Mei didn’t have to fight off her drowsiness for very long since most of them were actually correct, though for the few that weren’t, she wrote corrections on a separate sheet of paper since the original document was to be turned in.

She stopped before setting Yuzu’s pencil down to consider an idea that had entered her mind. At the top of the spare paper that she wrote corrections on, Mei left a note: ‘Keep up the good work.’ She quickly erased the period in favor of an exclamation point, fearing as usual that she wasn’t communicating herself well enough, especially after thinking of Yuzu’s note to her. She then punctuated her note with a heart at the end to match.

She felt silly. But to her, that meant that she was doing this right.

Mei began packing away Yuzu’s papers and pencils back into her binder and bag for her. She couldn’t squeeze the textbook in, however. It was only a inch over the top of the bag but it wouldn’t zip like that. Mei glanced at Yuzu, wondering if it was worth going through all this trouble. Should Yuzu wake, Mei didn’t want to be caught looking as if she were snooping. Again. Wondering why she was hesitating over something so small, Mei emptied the bag to start rearranging it again, and found the culprit sitting under everything.

The Peach Sisters manga. It wasn’t the same volume as before, since the cover was different… Mei caught herself studying it. So Yuzu was still reading it after all… lifting it up, Mei found the first volume underneath. Taking it out would be the easiest solution, but Mei was afraid that if she held onto it for too long she would be unable to resist reading it. She had been curious ever since she first discovered it with Yuzu… Yuzu was already finished with it anyway, so… 

Mei felt silly for even considering it.

These were Yuzu’s anyway, so it wasn’t like she had a right to read them without asking first, not that she could ever bring herself to ask… she did want to. But Yuzu was reading them with her in mind, so it would be okay if she did the same, right?

Was she blushing? Her cheek felt warm against the back of her hand but she couldn’t be sure.

 _’I’m absurd..._ , she thought again.

She couldn’t even if she wanted to, since Yuzu would notice that they were missing the next day. Mei ashamedly packed Yuzu’s bag again as best as she could and this time was able to make it fit, and left it in the chair for her. With that little deed comforting her flustered feelings, Mei went across the hall to brush her teeth and attempt clear her head while she was at it.

With Yuzu’s things ready for the morning, changed into her pajamas, turned the light off and climbed carefully into bed next to her. She sighed. Normally, they would have shared a kiss before drifting off and have snuggled up next to each other, but now Mei was left alone. It couldn’t be helped, she knew. She would simply have to kiss Yuzu in the morning to make up for it. Part of her wished guiltily that Yuzu had woken up while being carried, but Mei was surprised that she hadn’t. It surprised her how heavy of a sleeper Yuzu was in general, given how poorly she used to sleep with her around. Mei still harbored some guilt over it, but she was so glad that Yuzu was resting well now. So glad that her own presence, much less her touch, no longer disturbed her.

“Sweet dreams,” she said, since she couldn’t offer a kiss.

If her body couldn’t win, at least her voice could.

**Author's Note:**

> I know it’s been a little bit (a lot longer than I meant for it to be), but right as I was hitting my stride and coming up with a bunch of great ideas school hit me hard, and I got super depressed in the middle for a while... I still am. I don’t think I’m “back” yet, I just woke up a few days and really wanted to finish writing some Citrus. So I hope you enjoyed! I wanted to do something Mei-centric and wanted her doing something for Yuzu, if a little ordinary, so I could get into her shy and awkward thoughts. Because I really like shy/awkward Mei. Hopefully it kept your attention in that regard and wasn’t terminally boring :/ Let me know what you think!
> 
> I don’t know when I’ll post again. I’ve been in a not good mood lately and don’t know how I want to spend my time, and I feel like this want to write is going to be temporary. Hopefully it isn’t, but I’ll return with more fluff whenever I get around to it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a grand ol’ day!


End file.
